Dangers of Unfulfilled Desires

There are two classes of desires: those that help us to find God, and those that obstruct our finding Him. For example, if someone hits you, you want to retaliate; but if you overcome that desire by using the superior power of love, you have applied the action that will help you to find God. All desires should be satisfied in the divine way. When you try to satisfy them in the worldly way, you only multiply your difficulties. If you learn to give every desire to God, He will see to it that your good desires are fulfilled and the harmful ones are overcome. 

There is no protection greater than your conscience, and the divine quality of your good desires. If you but looked at your soul, the all-perfect reflection of God within you, you would find all your desires satisfied! In that divine consciousness, having which, no other gain is greater, you would be unmoved even if the whole world were given to you; neither would praise elate you, nor blame hurt. You would feel only the great joy of God within. 

God's Children Should Not Beg

Always seek the guidance of the Divine in trying to fulfil your legitimate desires, because that is the supreme way to receive the answers to all your prayers. But one thing you must remember: cut out begging from your prayer! Change your old attitude of supplication. You should pray to God intimately, as His child, which you are. God does not object when you pray from your ego, as a stranger and a beggar, but you will find that your efforts are limited by that consciousness. God does not want you to give up your own will power, which is your divine birth right as His child. 

Naturally, one should distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable prayers or desires. And bear in mind that, once you have made this discrimination, whatever good or bad desires you hold on to are bound to be fulfilled. If you cling to any evil desires, they will be granted; and you will find out what harm and unhappiness they cause. As time goes on, you will realize that even though your wish was fulfilled, your heart is still not satisfied; you will feel something within you rebelling. For example, suppose you have weak digestion, yet you want to eat fried foods. Not surprisingly, you suffer every time you do. Although you feel delight while fulfilling that desire, the aftereffect is pain; thus you are made aware that you have done wrong. It is wiser to use discrimination to separate your evil desires from your good ones and, having done so, to avoid the fulfilment of those wrong desires. Learn to be guided by your conscience, the divine discriminative power within you.

THE DESIRE THAT SATISFIES ALL DESIRES 

Unfulfilled desires remain in the heart. And what is the harm in harbouring them? It is this: Every desire consists of specific forces, either good or evil, or a mixture of both. And when you die, though your body is gone, those forces do not die. As mental tabloids they follow your soul wherever it goes, and when you are reborn, these tabloids manifest as behavioural tendencies. Thus, a person who has died an alcoholic brings with him the tendency to alcoholism when he is reborn; and it remains with him until he overcomes desire for alcohol. 

The behaviour of even the smallest child reveals certain characteristics of past lives. Some children have terrible temper tantrums; others are moody. God did not make them that way. Unfulfilled desires of past lives fashioned those psychological tendencies; and, because of them, the soul, even though made in the image of God, appears as something different. If the image of God within you is distorted in this life by anger or fear, and you do not conquer such uncharacteristic qualities now, you will be reborn with them; and you will have the burden of these misery-creating tendencies until you overcome them in some future incarnation. It is better, therefore, to work out or overcome all your desires now. They would be finished immediately and for all time in the supreme joy of God's presence; but until you know Him, your unconquered desires will remain to hound you.

There are two ways of finishing your desires—by realizing, through reason and discrimination, or wisdom, that only God can give permanent unalloyed happiness; and by fulfilment. In many cases desires lie hidden within the subconscious. 

You think they are finished, but they are not. Life is indeed a great mystery; but the mystery clears away when you dissect life with the scalpel of reason. If every day you sit quietly for a little while and analyse yourself, you will discover that you have many unsatisfied desires. They are like dangerous germs that you carry through life, and wherever you go, in this life or the next, they will go with you. 

The best course is to do away with all dangerous desires in this life, by discrimination, and to concentrate on fulfilling your good desires. If you feel drawn to commit suicide, or to do something evil, get rid of such desires now. Convince yourself, by reason and by good actions, that you are a child of God, made in His image, and rise above your moods and bodily habits. Be more detached. In this way you will conquer. If you suffer from a chronic ailment, try mentally to separate yourself from the consciousness of the body. By discrimination you can conquer the senses. Discrimination is the fire that burns up desire.

It is a general practice to store in the attic all of one's unwanted, unnecessary "junk," and once in a while to have a good housecleaning. Similarly, hidden away in the attic of your subconscious mind are many potentially harmful desires that one day may give you great trouble. It is important, therefore, to analyse yourself. Perhaps you are a hateful or moody or angry type of person. If so, these stored traits are the result of your own past behaviour. In order to clean out your mental attic of such unwanted furnishings, you must vigorously employ constructive, positive, loving action.